
This was a wonderful start to a late winter/Easter trip to Glen Shiel. We started off in clear weather: beautiful sunshine, deep blue sky and haze glistening off the huge snow patches up and down the glen.
We left the road about 1km SE of Achnangart Farm and climbed slowly up the zig-zag track to the col between Meallan Odhar and Bion an Fhithich where we all stripped our layers down to base-layers and shorts. This felt odd as we were carrying crampons and ice axes which we used. The Forcan Ridge was spectacular and a great scramble - we'd brought a rope and gear as we'd no idea what the conditions would be like on it having driven up from Nottingham the day before arriving late at the Bridge campsite. . A few difficult steps where we took it in turns to spot each other on a few downclimbs. From The Saddle we descended steeply to Beallach a'Mhalogain where we found some large boulders and started getting carried away on some bouldering problems. The ascent to Sgurr na Sgine was slow in the sunshine and we had to get axes out and kick steps in the shaded snow field. The descent to the road along the Faochag ridge was glorious and we returned to the road full of excitement at being sunburnt and using both summer and winter skills, as well as a great scramble.
- Significant mountains (Munros)
- Navigation between the summits, route finding and a climb.
- Knowledge increased in soloing.
- Safety awareness - more so on the downclimbs and between the two summits than on the ridge itself which was relatively straight forward.
- Over 5 hours
- UK mountain terrain in winter
- Axes used, crampons used.
Area :
Loch Eil to Glen Shiel
The Great Glen to the east, the A87 to the north and the A830 to the south separate this area from its surroundings and enclose an area of high mountains and low glens. The highest mountain is Sgurr na Ciche (1040m) and further north the South Glen Shiel Ridge is formed by a whopping seven Munros! Also in the area is The Saddle (1010m) which is home to the classic Forcan Ridge. Peaks in the mountains list are all above 900m.